


Birthday Reading Material

by DelilahBlueEyes



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-07
Updated: 2013-02-07
Packaged: 2017-11-28 13:15:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/674805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DelilahBlueEyes/pseuds/DelilahBlueEyes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: Rum takes Belle birthday shopping.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Birthday Reading Material

**Author's Note:**

> Written for marquesadesantos on tumblr, for her birthday! Just posting it now because I fall behind on these things.

“Oh, Rum, look! A complete set of Jane Austen all bound up in one book! Look at the gold leaf on the cover!”

“Belle, you already have most of Austen’s works already.”

“But… it’s so pretty…. Gold leaf, Rum…”

“Yes, alright.” He took the book from her hand with an indulgent smile, dropping it atop the pile in the arms of the already overburdened shop assistant behind him. He stood calmly in the center of the aisle of the bookstore while his Belle flitted back and forth through the aisles, exclaiming over various volumes. Each one that she brought back to him he accepted and passed on to the poor boy following behind him with hardly a thought. Anything she wanted, she got. After he finally convinced her to move past her hesitancy to spend his money, she’d delighted in shopping, and he in watching her while she was at it. The dancing light in her expressive blue eyes every time she bounded back to him with a book clutched to her chest was well worth what he would pay, not that he would miss it.

When she’d skittered all over the store and fairly picked it clean, they each took a small part of the books the teen was carrying to the front counter and she slipped her arms about him while her purchases were rung up and transferred to some spare cardboard boxes found in the back. Without thought, he returned her embrace and pressed a kiss to the top of her head, rocking her slowly side to side with a smile. While such a display would doubtless have made him uncomfortable just a short while ago he relished the times when he could be close to her. After all of the difficulties in their relationship it was nice to finally have a steady ground to stand on and confidence that this time they could make it work. And days like this certainly helped. If buying books would secure her affections for him, he would buy her an entire damn library. It could be argued that he technically already had, his name was on the deed of the Storybrook town library, which she ran with a thorough and loving hand.

After all of her lovely new books had been boxed up, with a few left over that she had asked to be put in a bag so she could carry them, Rumpelstiltskin paid a little extra to have the boxes delivered to her apartment and they left the store hand in hand, strolling through the small outlet mall. They shared a giant, cinnamon smothered pretzel and laughed quietly together as they witnessed Archie’s fumbling attempts to converse with Ruby while she bought new daisy duke shorts to fluster him with. Just when he began to dread the end of the outing and cast furtive glances around to find something with which to delay their departure, Belle rose off the bench they’d been curled together on and tugged him after her toward the exit doors. His heart sank at the thought of having to say goodbye so soon, but perhaps she would allow him to help her shelve her new books before she sent him home.

“Thank you for taking me shopping, Rum.” She spun about unexpectedly and draped her arms around his shoulders, the fingers of her free hand plucking idly at the hair at the nape of his neck. He set his hands lightly at her waist and kissed the tip of her nose. “This has been the most magnificent birthday I can remember.”

“No problem at all, love.” He tucked a strand of hair that had slipped out of her ponytail behind her ear, letting his fingertips linger against the skin of her jaw. “Although with so much new reading material I expect I won’t see you for the next several months at least. I may regret being so generous.”

“I wouldn’t believe that to be likely. You’d find a way to insinuate yourself back into my life one way or another.” Belle giggled charmingly and dropped a light kiss on his lips before stepping away and rummaging in the bag suspended from her wrist until she pulled a volume out and pressed it against her stomach, grinning when he quirked an eyebrow at her in question.

“What have you got there? Surely you don’t mean to begin ignoring me right away.”

In answer she pressed the book into his hands and plucked his wallet from his coat pocket, grinning wolfishly up at him. “Why don’t you go find a quiet corner somewhere nearby to look through that and get some ideas. I’ll just go pick up a few…. Outfits.”

When she’d danced away, her hair swaying between her shoulders he sat on a nearby bench and lifted the book into his line of sight. The font of the title gave him pause and he traced his eyes over the individual letters. K-A-M-A… Wait. No. It couldn’t possibly be what he thought it was. Flipping the book open to a random page revealed an intricately detailed illustration of a couple twisted together in…

“The Triumph Arch,” he murmured to himself, tilting the book this way and that to admire the curves of the woman’s body as she arched back between the legs of her lover, arms thrown up over her head and a look of intense pleasure on her face. His mind immediately supplied his Belle’s face in place of the fictional woman’s and he was forced to snap the book shut sharply, cross his legs and think of the consequences of someone finding his dagger. But that lead to the train of thought of Belle finding the dagger and what she could use it to command him to do and he groaned. Ideas, indeed. He’d barely managed to get control of himself by the time she returned, nearly half an hour later. One look at that devil-may-care grin on her face and he was shot right back to an acutely embarrassing state.

“So, did you happen to find anything of interest in that lovely book?” She asked.

“Uh,” he wet his lips and glanced around to make sure they were alone before quickly flipping through the pages again and finding the same image. She lifted the book from his hands and turned it to face her, humming in approval as she looked it over. “That one… uh…. seemed…. interesting…”

“Very interesting, though we may have to work up to it. Perhaps something simple to start with like reverse cowgirl or the rocking horse or—Ooh! We must try the desk chair! I’ve read that that one is especially nice. Oh, and the Amazon! Definitely the Amazon!”

Any hope he’d had of controlling his raging hard-on flew straight out the window and he clenched his teeth as she continued to list different sex positions like she was discussing ingredients for a recipe she’d like to make. When she noticed his discomfort she leaned down and touched his knee softly so that he had to bite back a groan and close his eyes to avoid seeing down her top.

“Would you like to take me home and see some of the nice new things I bought? Then perhaps we can have dinner and make a start on this rather long list of… interesting things?”

In the end he had to carry the bag of books awkwardly in front of his crotch to avoid discovery as they walked to his car and she smirked the entire way, caressing the spine of the book absently. Every once in a while she would remember another one to add to the list and Rumpelstiltskin was worried that if she kept talking like that he may perish of a heart attack long before they even got to his home. He would have to think long and hard to figure out how to top this birthday next year. For a man who’d never much cared for the celebration of another year of one’s life passing away, he was pretty certain it was fast becoming his favorite new holiday.


End file.
